Before you read on
- When you race
- 19–21 February 2027
- How many nights to book
- 3 nights
- Who this race suits
- A cheap, well-connected European race in a city that has rebuilt itself on top of a coal mine.
- Nearest airport to the venue
- Katowice Wojciech Korfanty (KTW), About 44 min by direct bus to Strefa Kultury, or 33 min by taxi
- Cost for the weekend
- PLN 1350 (USD 342) per person, Flights and race entry.
On this page
Should you race here?
A cheap, well-connected race on the site of a coal mine, in the month the coal still shows.
Reasons to
- An ordinary meal is about PLN 40, which makes this one of the cheapest European races here to eat at.
- Five tram lines from the main station, and an airport bus for six zloty.
- The Silesian Museum is built into the mineshafts next door, and Nikiszowiec is twenty-five minutes away.
- Krakow is eighty minutes by train, with departures every half hour.
Reasons not to
- February is the worst month for air in Upper Silesia, and the annual figure is already 19 micrograms.
- -3.4°C (26°F) overnight, with still, grey days.
- Katowice airport takes mostly low-cost routes, so most arrivals route through Krakow.
Conditions on the day
DAFI HYROX KATOWICE runs February 19th, 2027 to February 21st, 2027 at International Congress Centre. Here is what that specific window is like on the ground.
The catch
Cold, still and hazy
4°C (39°F) by day, -3°C (26°F) at night
Katowice in late February
- The February average reaches 3.7°C (39°F) by day and falls to -3.4°C (26°F) at night.
- Humidity holds at 81%, and still winter air is exactly what traps the smog here.
- About 40mm falls across nine days, as snow as often as rain.
- Daylight runs 06:46 to 17:09, ten hours and twenty minutes in total.
- Daylight
- Dark
- Bar height is temperature
What racing here is like
Your race is here
International Congress Centre
February 19th, 2027
DAFI HYROX KATOWICE
- Everything below describes this building first, and the other for comparison
The venue at a glance
- Address
- Plac Slawika i Antalla 1, Katowice
- Parking
- Car parks in the Culture Zone around the venue. No daily rate is published.
- From the nearest hotel
- 5 to 15 min from Hotels around the Culture Zone
- Altitude
- 266m above sea level, low enough to make no difference to your race.
- Bag drop
- Hyrox has not published the bag drop arrangement for Katowice.
- Supporters
- Hyrox has not published spectator ticketing for Katowice.
Katowice has moved building, moved season, and grown from a single day into the best part of a week. Where you race, and when, changes the day more than most people expect.
International Congress Centre, your race is in this building
A congress centre with a grass valley cut through its roof, in the Culture Zone beside the Spodek arena and the Silesian Museum.
Known for. The UN climate summit of 2018, which was held here, and the Intel Extreme Masters next door at Spodek.
The building. Opened in 2015 on the site of the old Katowice coal mine, part of a Culture Zone built where the pit head used to be.
Race day and start times
The thing that shapes your travel is not the race date. It is when you find out what time you are racing on it.
Hyrox links individual start times on the event page about three days before the race. A provisional schedule goes up earlier.
What to bring
At the Congress Centre, and only on the day you compete. Registration opens 90 minutes before the first wave of your division.
You do not bring a chip. You collect the ankle strap at check-in, wear it for the race, and hand it back after the line.
What your wristband does not cover
You are given a wristband at check-in. Hyrox has not published what the Katowice one admits you to. Check-in is open only on the day you race, so do not assume it covers a second day.
Getting there on the morning
A tram to Katowice Rondo, or fifteen minutes on foot from the centre. It will be below freezing.
What you need to book
Before you book
Book flights and the last night around the provisional schedule, not around a wave you have not been given.
If Hyrox cancels or postpones the event, its terms do not cover your flights or your room. Check the cancellation deadline on both before you pay for either.
Flying into the city
Krakow is 80 minutes away by train with a much wider network, and is often the better arrival.
Search flights to KatowiceBy train
Check train times and faresSomewhere to stay
The closest beds go first, and those are the ones that matter on race morning.
Compare hotels near the venueSomething to do with the rest of the weekend
Most people fly in for one race and see nothing. The day before is dead time if you do not plan it.
Tours and tickets in KatowiceSomewhere to put your bag
Flying out the same evening? This is the difference between a good afternoon and hauling a kit bag around a city.
Left luggage in KatowiceYour entry
Sold by Hyrox, one ticket per division per day. We earn nothing from this link and include it because you need it.
Official Hyrox entriesEstimate weekend cost
| Item | Local currency | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Three nights Nights near the venue | PLN 900 | $228 |
| Travel, airport and around the city | PLN 150 | $38 |
| Eating, three days | PLN 300 | $76 |
| One athlete plus one supporter | PLN 1350 | $342 |
Getting to Katowice
Katowice airport is about 44 minutes from the Culture Zone on a direct bus, for six zloty.
The airport bus
Direct from Katowice airport to Strefa Kultury in about 44 minutes for six zloty, roughly a pound and a half.
The train from Krakow
Eighty minutes from Krakow main station, every half hour. Krakow has far more international flights and is often the better way in.
Entry requirements
Quick tip
Krakow is 80 minutes away by train and has far more international routes, so check both airports before booking.
Getting to the venue
The city centre is a short tram or a fifteen-minute walk away and has almost all the hotels. There is little point staying anywhere else.
Five tram lines run from the main station to Katowice Rondo, beside the Culture Zone, and a day ticket is thirteen zloty. The airport bus runs direct to Strefa Kultury for six zloty, which is about a pound and a half.
Where to stay
The Culture Zone is a short walk north of the centre, and almost every hotel in Katowice is in that centre. There is no real decision to make.
Open in Google Maps · Get directions
1. Hotels around the Culture Zone
A handful of hotels between the arena and the station, at about PLN 300 a night. Closest to the start.
2. Hotels in the city centre
The main square, the bar street and the station. Where almost all the hotel stock is, and still a walk.
3. Hotels near the station
Practical for trains from Krakow or Warsaw, with the trams to Rondo leaving from outside.
Nothing large is booked into the Culture Zone that weekend, so rooms are at ordinary February rates. Check the Intel Extreme Masters dates, which move year to year.
Neighbourhoods worth the commute
Katowice is compact and the Culture Zone sits at the top of it, so everything below is a short walk or tram.
| Area | To the venue | Why | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Culture Zone | 5 to 15 min on foot | The Congress Centre, Spodek, the Silesian Museum and the concert hall, all on the old pit head. Nothing residential. | |
| The city centre | about 15 min on foot | The Rynek, the modernist blocks and Mariacka street, where Katowice drinks. All the hotels. | |
| Nikiszowiec | about 25 min by tram and bus | A 1910 miners' settlement of red brick courtyards, still lived in, and the most interesting corner of the city. | |
| Dolina Trzech Stawow | about 20 min by tram | The valley of three ponds, a large park south-east of the centre with running paths around the water. | |
| Brynow | about 15 min by tram | A residential district on the way to the park, ordinary and cheap, with the forest behind it. |
Eating before and after
The night before a race is not the night for the best meal of your trip, which is harder discipline than it sounds in a city this good at food.
The city centre
Fifteen minutes on foot, with restaurants around the Rynek that serve from five and will do you a plate of pasta for forty zloty.
Around the station
The shopping centre above Katowice station has a food court and a supermarket, five minutes by tram. Dull, close and open late.
Silesian food is dumplings, rolled beef and red cabbage, and it is built for a climate like this one.
Rolada with kluski
Beef rolled around bacon and pickled cucumber, with potato dumplings and red cabbage. The Sunday dish of Silesia, and on every menu in the city.
Slaska Prohibicja, Nikiszowiec
A restaurant in the old miners' settlement doing the regional cooking properly, in a red brick courtyard twenty-five minutes out.
Race day supplies
The practical failures that spoil a race weekend are almost never the training. They are forgetting the gels, or carrying a kit bag around a city for six hours.
Pack list
- Proper winter clothing. The overnight average is -3.4°C (26°F) and the walk from the tram is exposed.
- An inhaler if you use one. February is the peak of the Silesian heating season.
- Something for snow underfoot. Forty millimetres across nine days, much of it frozen.
Quick tips
- Buy a PLN 13 day ticket rather than singles at PLN 4.60.
- Check the air index before you travel. A still February day in Silesia is a genuine reason to warm up indoors.
The shopping centre above the station has everything and is five minutes away by tram.
The last race in Katowice
The Congress Centre is a recent addition to the Hyrox calendar, so there is little previous form here to pass on.
What happened
The last edition, in short.
- Katowice Rondo is the tram stop, served by five lines from the main railway station.
- The Culture Zone holds the Congress Centre, Spodek and the Silesian Museum, so check which building.
What it means for you
How your race differs from that one.
- February is the worst month for air in Upper Silesia, and Katowice averaged 19 micrograms of PM2.5 across 2024.
- The overnight average is -3.4°C (26°F), so the walk from the tram is properly cold.
What else is on that weekend
A quiet late-February weekend in a city whose big events are elsewhere in the year.
| What | When | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing booked into the Culture Zone | 19 to 21 February | The Congress Centre and Spodek | The arena next door has no fixture across the race days, so the whole zone belongs to the race. |
| The Intel Extreme Masters, later | Usually late January or February | Spodek | Katowice's biggest annual event fills the city completely. Check the date before booking, because it moves. |
| The heating season | October to April | The whole of Upper Silesia | Not an event, but the thing that decides the air. Still, cold February days are the worst of it. |
| Krakow, eighty minutes away | All weekend | The main station | Trains every half hour. If you want a day out of Silesia, this is the obvious one. |
What to see
Written for someone racing tomorrow, not a tourist with a week. Each entry says how far it is, because some of these are worth a longer trip and some are not.
The Silesian Museum
Built down into the shafts of the old Katowice mine, so the galleries are underground and only the glass lift heads show above the grass. The best museum in the region.
Nikiszowiec
A complete 1910 miners' settlement of red brick, built around nine courtyards, still housing people. Listed as a monument of history and quite unlike anywhere else.
Spodek
A 1971 arena shaped like a flying saucer, next door to the Congress Centre, and the building Katowice is known by. Worth looking at even when nothing is on.
The Guido mine at Zabrze
A coal mine you descend into, 320 metres down, half an hour west. The region's history taken at face value rather than made into a metaphor.
What to do
Dolina Trzech Stawow
Paths around three ponds in a park south-east of the centre, flat and lit. The obvious shake-out run, twenty minutes by tram.
Mariacka street
One pedestrian street in the centre carrying most of the city's bars, a tidy arrangement. Fifteen minutes on foot from the venue.
Krakow for the day
Eighty minutes by train, with departures every half hour, to one of the best-preserved old cities in Europe. The easiest good day trip from any race here.
The Silesian Park
Six hundred hectares between Katowice and Chorzow, built on reclaimed industrial land in the 1950s, with a planetarium and a lot of trees.
Raced here? Tell us about it.
Anything you wish you had known. It goes into this guide for the next person, and most of them have never done a Hyrox.
Things people find useful
- How early you really needed to arrive
- What caught you out
- What the hall was like inside
- Where your supporters watched from
- Anything good you did in the city
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Last updated November 7th, 2026.